


One Big Happy Family

by Spoiler1001



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Abandonment, Adoption, Blood, Chaos, Demons, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Lesbian Character, Murder, Possible kiddnapping, Underage Drinking, greif
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-06-13 22:47:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 5,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15375078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoiler1001/pseuds/Spoiler1001
Summary: Au where dante adopts Patty from birth. Collection of moments. Including Nero with some heartwarming cousin moments.





	1. Nero, don't stare. It's rude.

Nero looked at the blond child that was sitting in dante's holding on tightly, begging him not to go. Dante himself had a gentleness that Nero had never seen before. 

 

"Sweetheart, it's only for the afternoon. I'll be fine." He said, gently prying her away from his jacket. 

 

"Last time you said that awnty Twish carried you home bloody." The child countered. 

 

"Look, it won't happen tonight, plus your new cousin Nero will make sure nothing will happen." Dante turned the child around to face Nero, who awkwardly waved hello. "Besides Lady and Trish will be with me this time, ok?"

 

The child nodded hesitatantly. Dante cheerfully and gently handed patty to Nero, pulling him in. 

 

"Nephew or not, anything happens to her, your head will join the others on my wall." Dante growled before pulling away to place a kiss on his daughters forehead. 

 

Nero could only stare.


	2. Patty meets angry lizzard man

Dante was beyond furious. They took his little girl, his daughter. Demons took his mother, his brother, but please not her too.

Finding the area where they were was too easy. They told him where she was, like she was gonna be dead when he came.

Patty was bruised with a scratch on her cheek. Blood was smeared on her face. He'd hair was knotted but she was alive. She could hear Dante screaming. The demons that kidnapped patty ran to the ambush trying to stop and kill the son of sparda.

Dante stopped them from even leaving the room. Patty watched as her father was in his demonic form.

She watched him rip her kidnappers to bits. He had demonic blood on him, the dust caking on his outfit. His scales were chipped and his wings were damaged and his own blood dripped.

Dante stopped when the fighting was over, hesitant because she should see this side him.

She looked at him for a long second.

Then she broke into a smile.

"Papa!" She cheered and lifter one arm in a motion to be picked up, her other arm, handcuffed to the bed.

Dante blinked for a second.

Then he came to his senses and snapped her binding and picked her up.

"Hey sweetheart, youre ok...." he whispered.

Patty held on tightly.

 


	3. Dante, you can't adopt Nero too.

Dante looked at the demon corpses around him, slowly dissolving. His devil trigger form was out and his wings twitched. As he sighed, expecting his form to dissipate. 

He sat down and breathed. With this whole business over, the kid was with his girlfriend. His scales were rubbing together uncomfortably. 

His mind went back to his brother and.... god he missed his family. 

"Papa!" A small voice cracked through his thoughts. His wings opened subconsciously and he barely had time to open his arms when a blond and pink blur of mass crashed unto him. 

"Patty..." he whispered hugging her closes. She was barely tall enough to cover his chest and was completely covered by the wings. 

"You're ok." She yelled. 

Dante smiled and slipped back into human form. Tears fell from his eyes. 

"Of course" he put her down onto the ground and sat next to her. "I won't leave you like that." 

"So you DO have a kid. You seemed like a father to me." Nero's voice rang out. Patty looked at the new person. 

"Yup. She's helps me get through the day. This is patty." Dante responded back. 

Nero knelt down to shake patty's hand and Kyrie squealed at the cuteness of patty.


	4. This was the only way she would turn out, you raised her Dante.

It was when Dante saw his daughter he decided that he was in hell to long.

Patty became a powerful witch. She could release spell after spell, forcing demons to crumble. Trish and patty rip through demons like they were paper. All the flames were nothing to patty as she threw monsters into them.

Dante froze with pride as she won the battle. Dante watched as she pulled back a stray piece of hair.

Patty's eyes scanned the area around her and she blinked as she spotted Dante standing and staring. She turned to face Trish who was staring as well.

"Dante...?" Trish whispered.

He could only nod. Patty walked to him and so they were arms length. She fashioned herself a red coat like his but hers had pockets. She had cut her hair short, shoulder length.

"You lied. You promised me you wouldn't leave me..." she whispered through her teeth.

"I know, I'm so sorry I came home as soon as I could." Dante nodded.

"Papa..." Patty cried, launching herself at him. Tears fell from his eyes. "I thought you were dead." Her body shook with tears.

"It's ok sweetheart. It's ok." He purred in comfort.


	5. Well that clears things up

Patty was watching tv, seemingly captivated by the cartoon on the screen. Dante had been gone for a couple days now. Nero knew that despite their shared blond hair, Trish was not the mother. He walked in on her with lady enough times to guess that.

"You can ask, you know." Patty spoke up.

"How-" Nero stuttered out.

"I see you staring. You can ask. How am I related to papa. I'm his daughter." Patty interrupted looking at him.

She turned to rest her chin on the armrest of the couch.

"I mean I'm curious, but you're his daughter, I'm trying to figure out who your mother is." Nero admitted.

"I don't have one." Nero raised his eyebrows at the answer. "A woman tried to say I was hers one time but, Dante kicked her out. Turns out she only wanted my blood because of magic." She said drinking apple juice that was placed on the table in front of her.

"Then how did he get you." Nero pried.

"He adopted me." She said simply.

"Why?" Nero asked. Patty shrugged.

"I don't know but it might have to do with a woman that tried to let demons kill me as a baby. They gave me t'him to protect me and never gave me back." She smiled.

"Oh."

"It's fine though. I'm happy and the family here just keeps growing." Patty smiled brightly, showing a gap tooth.


	6. Well it's not kidnapping, but something illegal happened

Dante looked at the bundle in his hands. The baby girl was sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of the gore that lay a few feet away.

Dante completely followed through with the escort mission. He brought the child to wh3re he thought she would have a family. It turns out that a woman managed to fake paperwork so that a defenseless infant would bare the danger of demon attacks while she was safe and sound. His protection was an afterthought.

When he found out, his anger surged up. Dante gently placed the child in her seat and placed the sword against the wall and lunged at the woman.

After punching her relentlessly, he found himself looking at her disconnected head.

Dropping the garbage where it lay, he took off his gloves and whipped the blood off his face with a curtain.

Sitting on the couch he cradled the child.

She opened her eyes.

"Hi princess. Don't worry you'll be ok." Dante smiled. "You won't have to fear any more monsters"


	7. No I did not kidnapp a child, thank you Trish

Trish did not know what to expect when walking into devil may cry. Dante holding a baby, feeding it was not even a possibility to her. She s never seen Dante with such a soft expression on his face.

"Dante, I never took you for babysitting." She said, making him look up.

"She s mine." He whispered. "She s mine...."

"Dante did you-"

"No I adopted her."

"You claimed someone else's child as your own. Isn't that a crime?" She cocked her head to the side.

"Not if you do it the right way." He laughed. "Come here meet your goddaughter."

"My what?" She laughed as well.

"Patricia Redgrave. Your goddaughter. If something happens to me, you would take care of her." He turned the baby to face her. Trish was sold when she saw the happy toothless smile.

* * *

Lady walked in after waiting by the bike for almost an hour.

"T? What-" lady was shocked to see her fiancee speaking Latin in bayby talk to an infant wrapped in a blanket.

"Lady, my love, the light of my life, Dante stole a child and now she's his daughter." Trish smiled.

"I adopted her. You and Trish are the godparents. Her name is Patricia, or patty for short." Dante quickly explained at the raised eyebrow of lady. "Just come meet her."

Lady walked over to the child. She was babbling back at Trish, but to lady they could have been having a full conversation.

Patty looked over and noticed lady. She smiled and giggled at the new person.

"Dante I may actually steal your child."


	8. Grandpa

Nero was walking patty through a park. It was day three of a mission that was supposed to take a few hours. Patty was getting emotional. He didn't know how to do babysitting. He was just winging this. At least the kid was alive, if just sad her pop was away.

"'Ero, look, grandpa." Patty pointed towards something. Nero looked towards where ever she was pointed. Was Morrison in the area?

"I don't see anything patty." He tried to be calm but she screamed it right next to him. She grabbed his human hand and began pulling him one way.

"Grandpa is here." She said again.

"Your birth grandfather? Cause ours is long dead..." Nero asked and looked around to see people ignoring the two of them.

"Our grandpa. Sparda." She nodded, pointing downwards towards the ground.

"You mean he's buried?" Nero asked again, trying to understand this child.

"No. Look." She stomped and pointed.

Finally he looked down and saw a cockroach the size of his big toe.


	9. Abandonment is a Cruel Reality

Nero and patty sat at the desk with piles of bills and payments from clients. There was a glass bottle of a liquid between them, the contents patty was not legally able to say she consumed but did so anyway. Nero's devil bringer glowing dimly, showing how close he was to falling asleep.

 

"Why is it that Papa always seems to be in debt, but not at the same time? Like he owes people money, but he can pay it off easily." Patty whispered.

 

"Your father is a strange individual. He does things seemingly on impulse, but it's calculated for the most part." Nero responded unhelpfully.

 

"This contradiction is giving me a headache." Patty leaned back in her father's chair and put her feet on the desk.

 

"I think that's the bourbon," Nero mumbled rubbing his face with his human hand.

 

"You're just jealous because I've inherited my father's tolerance for ol' jack here," Patty smirked and took another swig from the bottle.

 

"I don't think that's how adoption works." Nero looked up.

 

"Shut up, lightweight." Patty stuck her tongue out and took a huge drink out of it, finishing the bottle with an exaggerated sigh and a goofy smile.

Nero took the bottle and looked at it, seeing that it was in fact nearly empty. The smell was off almost as if-

 

"There was no booze in this, was there." Nero gave Patty a dry look. She burst out laughing. "You little punk. You could have shared."

 

Patty wiped a tear of mirth out of her eye. "I never said you couldn't have any. You could have tasted it. Papa hid the good booze and took some old bottles and filled them with ice tea or soda when Enzo came back to the states."

 

"That sounds like Dante." He chuckled. "Do you have any more?"

 

"There's a bottle of Jack with Coke in it in the fridge," Patty said, putting the empty bottle in a desk drawer.

Nero stood up and went to the kitchen. A woman with dark skin and bright red hair walked in. Her white armor was gray and smoking. There were holes in it and she had blades hanging from her belt.

 

"Sorry, ma'am we're closed." Patty looked up and watched the woman carefully. Her voice was even and professional. She snuck a look inside the kitchen, locking eyes with Nero, warning him to get ready for a fight.

 

Her voice was deeper than most human women and patty could feel the demonic energy radiating off her, not reacting because she felt the same from most of her family. The English was perfect but the woman's accent was thick.

 

"I'm looking for Patricia Redgrave."

 

Nero stepped into the room, his arm glowing brightly, ready to defend. Patty took her feet off the desk and grabbed a gun, hidden under the rest and flipped the safety off, pointing it at the intruder.

 

"You've found her." She said, her voice was even, but she was stiff.

 

"I came at the request of your father." The woman seemed to know that the two of them were ready to attack but didn't return the defensive nature of their attitude.

 

"What about my father?" Patty seemed to get angry at the thought of the stranger talking so freely about the man.

 

"He helped save my island. He was a brave man and he asked me to give something to you." She took a step forward and slid a silver coin to her on the desk. Patty blinked and turned the safety back on and put the gun back in its harness. She picked up the can blinked. It was a double-headed coin.

 

"He 'was'...?" She looked at the redhead woman with hard eyes fearing the worst and almost compelling the woman to elaborate.

 

"I'm sorry, he's gone. He fell into hell and all known portals have sealed, he may never find a way out."

 

Patty blinked and sighed.

 

"It will be a long time before I see him again if I ever at all." Her voice lost its hardness, all emotion.

 

Nero stepped into the room and in between the two of them. "As she said earlier, the shop is closed, you can come back and discuss this." The woman nodded at Nero's words and walked out of the shop. Patty looked at the double-headed coin and cradled it.

"Papa and I dealt with a demon of greed in a mint." She looked at Nero and made a small noise Nero took the coin from her hand. "I thought it was cool and they let me have the coin. I gave it to Papa and I had no idea he kept it."

 

Nero placed a hand on her shoulder. "He'll come back."

 

"Hopefully in my lifetime." She sighed. "He's only trapped with every demon that hates our grandfather and a couple that hates him personally."

 

"He's dealt with worse." Nero gave her shoulder a squeeze.

 

"Not alone."

 

"He'll be fine, ok? He'll be back before you know it."

 

"Nero, we might need something a little stronger than coke." She rasped as tears fell down her face.


	10. loss without death

Dante looked at Lucia fight demons with two hooked blades, tearing apart monsters left and right, covered in blood but not giving into bloodlust. Her hair was bright red, but Dante could see her freeform under her skin. It didn't matter to him, he had no room to talk.

 

"You did a good job with her," Dante said, looking at the elder woman sitting next to him. She had white hair and wrinkled skin.

 

"You would think she would have been a nightmare, but the most I had to worry about was her running off to see momentous of your father." The old woman smiled. "She was stubborn like that."

 

Dante smiled. "I have a daughter at home. She's going on sixteen now. I never wanted her to join this life, but she's so stubborn, I just couldn't stop her." He took a coin out of his pocket. "She gave it to me and I think it's good luck."

 

"Was it?" The old woman chuckled.

 

"Dunno, but it makes her happy when I keep it around." He smiled. "She has a smile that just lightens up reality."

 

"Truly, that's the sign of true parents." The woman smiled wistfully. Dante slid the coin back into his pocket as the young demon walked up to them.

 

Lucia wasn't out of breath and magic was radiating from her.

 

"The portal is getting bigger. We have to stop the monster who's running the island to the ground." Lucia spoke with a purposeful tone. Dante stood up and rushed to where the swirling chaotic energy. The air started smelling like acid and sulfur. Wind spun in his hair tangling it and dirtying it, turning it gray. His blue eyes glowed from the dull light that flowed everywhere and Latin and other ancient languages echoed from nowhere and everywhere.

 

"You know that by doing this, you'll be a hero."

 

"I'd rather be a daughter," Lucia responded and Dante nodded.

 

"We only get that choice a few times in our life."

 

The two stopped at a melted mass of some demons that Dante fought. He hissed under his breath. "This will be tough."

 

"We can do this."

 

Dante nodded and slid the coin out of his pocket. "Take this. It is lucky. But I will need it back."

 

Lucia nodded and grabbed her swords and jumped at the lump of monster. Dante took his sword and cut off limbs left and right. The monster screamed with a million voices and shot lasers. One laser shot straight through his chest, making him cry out and stumble.

 

"Well, that sucked." He laughed as blood dripped from his wound.

 

The portal of hell that the creature was crawling out of was big but closing as the two of them attacked the beast. Lucia looked at Dante and went to rush to his side. Dante shook his head and pushed the beast further back into hell, slamming the portal closed.

 

Soon it was just a tear in reality and Dante had only the upper part of his body in the world of humanity. He looked at Lucia, his form flickering between humanoid and demonic.

 

"Find my daughter. She'll want to know."

 

Lucia blinked in confusion. The portal sucked Dante in as he turned fully demonic.

 

Lucia fell to her knees and stared at the air.

 

"You should do as he says."

 

Lucia looked over to her mother. "I guess the coin really was lucky."

 

"Nothing can change the luck of a Sparda, but the coin was more of a family memento." She smiled bitterly. "But we should go give that poor girl the only thing that she'll have of her father for a long time."


	11. meeting the family

There were few demons around right now. Dante knew that was because something was coming, but right now he had more important things to attend to, things like trying to French braid a six-year-old's hair.

 

"Papa, do you have any idea what you're doing?" Patty whispered as Dante continued to brush her hair, much like he's been doing for the past ten minutes. She wore a black shirt and a pink skirt. She usually had a hot pink bow in her hair, but it was in her hand as Dante finally grabbed her hair and began to braid it shakily.

 

"I kind of know what I'm doing." Dante smiled and kissed the top of her head and took the bow in her hand and placed it at the bottom of the braid that looked passable but with lots of loose hair. Dante picked up the girl and carried her to the kitchen. Patty smiled and held on.

 

"Papa, there's been not a lot of monsters. Does that mean that you have to get a new job?" She asked, putting her head on his shoulder.

 

Dante made a small noise and shook his head as he grabbed applesauce from the fridge and a small spoon. "No, the worst kind of people and monsters will always seem to come back. The calm moments are just times when you can breathe and relax."

 

"Oh," Patty whispered and pouted as Dante put her down. He handed her the snack and spoon and she sat on the couch, watching some cartoon or another. Dante sat behind his desk worked on paying some bills.

 

 

Patty finished the snack and before she had a chance to clean up, she turned her head near the foot and just scared, her eyes growing wide and losing the grip on the empty cup. The door opened and a man with a blue coat and a bandaged face. Only cold blue eyes were visible.

 

"Patty, I think you forgot your stuffed bear on my bed. We can't have dinner without it." Dante told the girl and she nodded, running upstairs, and locking herself in his room, where there were numbers to Trish and lady if she really needed help.

 

"You spawned a child? What power do you have to pass down to the next generation?" The man scoffed.

 

Dante growled and gritted his teeth. "I adopted her."

 

"Why would you claim a reject as your own?"

 

"Well, she wasn't rejected by me." Dante felt his demonic form scratch to the surface, fighting to defend his young. The intruder laughed.

 

"What is it with you and collecting the strange?" The man had a snarl and pulled a knife from his sleeve. "Does she know about your devil form?"

 

"I tried hiding it from her. it didn't work She knows." Dante stood up and put himself between the newcomer and his daughter.

 

"Oh, and do you worry that her nightmares are about you?" The masked stranger smiled. dante flinched and thoughts ran thousands of miles per hour before it clicked.

 

Dante growled and punched the stranger. "You've been watching her, and given her reaction to you, you've given her nightmares."

 

The stranger got knocked down to the floor, but still laughed. "You're still slow on the uptake. Which is why I'm always powerful."

 

"But I have a life," Dante growled and kicked him through the doors and onto the street.

 

Despite the broad daylight, there was no traffic, but there was blistering heat. The stranger burned and smelled of decaying flesh in the broad daylight.

 

The stranger laughed, "you can't protect much of anything, can you?" With that he teleported. Dante gasped and ran up the stairs, hearing a surprised cry of fear. He snarled and ran to his room, hearing her crying from behind the door. Without a second thought, he kicked his own door down and saw the stranger with no bandages on his face holding patty, and pressing a small blade to her neck.

 

"Bastard!" Dante roared.

 

His perfect mirror chuckled. "Technically, I think this mistake is a bastard. " Patty had tears running down her face and a bruise on her cheek. Dante gritted his teeth and sighed, swallowing his demonic form down.

 

"Just let her go, ok? She has nothing to do with you." He asked quietly.

 

Vergil smiled. "I think I'll get to know my niece. I've seen so much about her." The older twin teleported out of the room and into the main room.

 

He took a step backward and turned to run out of the building and almost got grabbed by Dante. Vergil scoffed and responded by sending a phantom sword through the back of Dante and pinning him to the street.

 

"Papa!" Patty cried and began to struggle. Vergil dug the knife into her skin and red dripped down her neck.

 

"Quiet! Damn brat!" Vergil hissed. Patty cried and flames flew from her body, causing Vergil to drop her. She ran to her father and cried.

 

"Papa!" She whimpered and Dante wiped her tears from her face. His eyes looked past her and locked onto his twin. A blue sword came flying and Dante pushed her to the side impaling him again. This time patty screamed in rage as flames and shadows shot themselves at Vergil and he dodged.

 

"The power of Abigail." The blue demon scoffed. "That power pales in comparison of-" Vergil was cut off as the spell sends him flying backward. "Bitch!" He growled and launched himself at the girl, only to be knocked out of the air again by fire.

 

Vergil stumbled and groaned as he slammed into the ground. Blue flames surrounded him. "N-no I can still do it!" Vergil cried as he tried to run away from the flames surrounding him but they consumed and dissolved him

 

"Papa!" Patty ran back to her father's side and grabbed the hilt of the phantom sword impaling his back and pulled at it. The sword didn't budge but a few seconds of the master not being there, the swords shattered, fading from reality. Dante gasped and crumpled a complain as he pushed himself up. Patty hugged her father as soon as she saw an opening. Dante groaned in pain from the hug but didn't push her away. He pushed her hair away from her neck to look at her wound.

 

"C'mon princess, let's get that wound taken care of and we'll take a nap afterward, ok? We both need it."

 

Patty nodded and grabbed onto her father as he picked her up and carried her.

 

 


	12. introductions and decisions

"You bastard."

 

Nero woke up to a blond and red blur, and it was getting cleared. He blinked and gave her a sheepish smile. "Hey, princess...."

 

"I told you to stay safe and as soon as you leave my sight you pick a fight and lose your arm. I thought you died." Patty glared and tears were building in her eyes. "You're practically my brother and I need you."

 

Nero used his remaining arm to push himself up. "I know but I had to make sure Kyrie was safe. ...is She?" He asked.

 

Patty nodded. "....y-yeah... She's just outside. Not a scratch."

 

"That's... that's good..." he nodded.

 

"I'm going to leave, but I expect you to call me tonight. I might know someone who can help you." Patty sighed. "Just get better, ok? I can't lose you too."

 

Nero nodded and watched her leave and blinked as Kyrie, Trish, and Lady rush him to dote and question him.

It was a couple hours before he saw a new face. He had fallen back asleep and was groggy and dazed when he saw the two figures. A woman with black curly hair and red glasses walked in with Patty. The woman looked him over and made a humming sound.

 

"Definitely a Sparda. I think I can do a few things with this." The woman spoke with a southern accent. Nero could only make a small noise as the woman touched the remains of the devil bringer. "It won't be cheap, but considering that you guys kept my families business afloat, I'll do it."

 

Patty sighed and looked down at Nero who was still blinking back to consciousness. "Well, I guess it really up to you..." She sighed and the black-haired woman looked at Nero.

 

"Well, what do you say, hero...? Want a shiny new arm?" The woman raised an eyebrow.

 

"Uh... I guess...." Nero was barely still out of it but really wanted a new arm. The woman grinned evilly and rushed off, mumbling about designs and weapons.

 

"She's scary," Nero whispered and rubbed at his arm.

 

"She's good at her job," Patty responded as she grabbed fresh bandages to clean the wound.

 

"Youre still gonna hunt demons, aren't you." She stated and began to unbandage the stump. 

 

"I'm gonna join you. There's not a chance that you will stop, so I'm keeping an eye on you." Patty smirked.

 

"...no talking you out of this...?" Nero hissed quietly at the feeling of the cloth rubbing on this sensitive scar tissue. "I think it's healed....you don't need to do that."

 

Patty laughed at the thought of being talked out of her idea. "Not risking it."

 

"What about school, you're sixteen." Nero scoffed.

 

"You better stay near the shop then." She replied, despising of the old bandages.

 

"And the woman that felt up my arm?" Nero asked, making patty swat at him.

 

"Nico's family has been making weapons and such for a long time, even for our grandfather." Patty sar in a chair.

 

"Oh."

 

"Yeah, but She s really good. Promised to make me daggers that looks like your sword." Patty nodded and yawned. Nero looked at the clock near the bed, showing that it was two in the morning.

 

"Go to bed." Nero spoke.

 

"...I'm not tired." Patty lied and sat down in a chair placed next to the bed.

 

Nero sighed and forced himself to his feet and grabbed a folded blanket, tossing it yo her.

 

"Just sleep here. But get some rest. You'll need it." Nero whispered and sat back on the bed and held his head in his hand. Patty was asleep before the blanket was unfolded. Nero shook his head and smiled. "Appreciate te concern kiddo, but not gonna let you fight the son of a bitch that did it, when we run into him."


	13. Cut and Scarred

Nero didn't know if he should be thankful or pissed. Patty had been cut and stabbed in her side and she was pale as she bled out. Fortunately, Nico 's destructive driving had saved her by getting her to help quickly but goddamn. She didn't need to jump in to stop him from getting hit. He could take it. She couldn't. Nero played with her hair as patty slept off her wound.

 

"Stubborn kid." He whispered.

 

Patty turned her head as she blinked awake.

 

"Couldn't... couldn't lose you too."

 

Nero sighed and shook his head. "You could have been hurt."

 

"So...so could you... you're more human than not." She whispered and sat up.

 

"But you're completely human. Seriously, your father will rip my head off if you had gotten killed." Nero let out a nervous chuckle.

 

"Well I'm sorry, after your arm..." she made a sigh that sounded like she was deflating.

 

"I get it but please don't be a hero. You're family and we need to stay together right now." Nero grabbed her shoulder and squeezed.

 

"How about I man the home shop, and keep kyrie safe?" She gave him a smile.

 

"Yeah, focus on graduating." Nero nodded and noticed her hair sliding back and a long thin scar, a thin long line slicing her neck. "How did you get that?"

 

Patty placed a hand over the scar and opened her mouth, hesitating.

 

"It doesn't matter." She said after a second.

 

"Bullshit. That's old and given how protective your father was, he was there. What happened." Nero pulled her hand away and looked at the scar. It wasn't puffy and ugly like a scar not cared for, it was a scar that was clean and stitched together lovingly.

 

"You may not like it." She whispered as he took his hand away from it. "Papa didn't. Papa still isn't ok with it."

 

"Who..." he asked, knowing that it couldn't have been Dante but so many possibilities passed through his mind.

 

"Your father." She whispered.

 

"My father is dead," Nero responded, he didn't know if it was a statement or a threat or a promise.

 

"He wasn't alive when he did this." She laughed bitterly. "His possessed body sometimes came to fight him. And one time he took me to try to hurt him and Dante promised that his child would kill your father's boss."

 

"He what."

 

"Before he adopted me, mind you. He didn't think I wasn't in his life at the time." She let out a smirk. "I did set Vergil though."

 

Nero ruffled her hair with pride. "I'm not surprised."

 

"Shut up..." she blushed.

 

"I've seen you sneeze fire, kid."

 

"I was seven!" She laughed.

 

"You did it last week. Nico wanted to weaponize it." Nero chuckled.

 

"Father would love it. beats one of our fire weapons."

 


	14. nightmares

Patty was usually a quiet sleeper, even as a child. When she was an infant, it scared Dante how she wouldn't fuss. of course, she never had to, Dante would constantly check up on her. It hurt him as a father but made him proud. She was growing up and wouldn't need him one day, but he loved it when she came to him and knew that she could count on him.

 

The downside to that was she came to him in times of terror.

 

Patty cried out in horror, making Dante run to her.

He wasn't expecting her thrashing in her sleep, but that's what he got. she was drenched in sweat and her long hair was sticking to her. Dante gently grabbed her shoulder and shook her awake.

 

"Hey, princess. It's ok, its ok," he said, looking down at her and giving her a comforting smile. Patty wiped a tear away and threw herself at him. he wrapped his hands around her and picked her up, humming quietly. he unleashed his devil form and wrapped his wings around her. "You're safe, you're safe." He purred, trying to comfort her. "Nothing will hurt you." He promised.

 

He started swaying, adding to the lullaby nature of the purring and soon, Patty calmed down, slowly falling asleep, making a small humming sound. she relaxed in the hug as a slight snore coming from her.

 

"You sound like a kitten kiddo. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were part demon, too." Dante chuckled and placed a kiss on her forehead and placed her back in bed.

 

After Dante tucked patty back into bed, he looked underneath her bed, thankful to find it bare.

 

"Looking for something?" A deep woman's voice chirped from behind him.

 

Dante turned around and saw the blond demon that claimed Patty as part of her family. "Trish, just making sure she's safe."

 

Trish smiled and walked over, placing a kiss on Patty's forehead. "with us here, she's fine."

 

Dante nodded and looked out the window, seeing shadow's dancing outside. the whole thing making him so uneasy. "I may not protect her forever."

 

"you may not need to." Trish scratched Patty's scalp gently, making her almost smile in her sleep. "You can feel the power in her blood, just as much as I can."

 

"...There are people, enemies, that will hurt her." Dante glared at the shadows dancing on the wall across the way, and how they faded under his stare. "If you and lady are staying for a while we need warding now." his voice turned hard as he reverted back into human form.

 

 


End file.
